


Party

by Merixcil



Series: Advent Fics 2017 [9]
Category: Watchmen (Comic), Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol, Gen, rorschach is very antisocial
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:46:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24605653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merixcil/pseuds/Merixcil
Summary: Dan attempts to do normal holiday things
Relationships: Dan Dreiberg & Rorschach
Series: Advent Fics 2017 [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1767640
Kudos: 2





	Party

**Author's Note:**

> What is a timeline? What is it to understand when a scene could conceivably have taken place in the scope of the canon? I'm afraid you're going to have to ask someone else because I have NO idea

Work friends and casual acquaintances are peppered through with a few neighbours he only invited to be sure no one was going to complain if things got a bit rowdy. Dan looks out across his assembled guests and sighs, he has no idea why he thought this was going to be a good idea. He had figured it might be fun to have people over around the holidays, have a few drinks and pretend the creeping dread of the end of the world wasn’t pressing down hard on all their necks.

“Thanks for inviting us out.” Malcolm, a professor over at Columbia in their zoology department claps Dan on the shoulder, walking out from the kitchen with a mug of mulled wine in hand.

Dan is somewhat relieved, out of all the people here tonight Malcolm is one of the few he’s actually had a personal conversation with in the past. They might actually be friends if Dan ever let himself socialise with people outside other masks.

Not that that’s really socialising. Frantic planning sessions followed by coordinated attacks that fail as often as they succeed possibly rounded off with a drink if they can persuade themselves that they have the time. Even that routine has almost vanished now that he and Rorschach are regularly working together. No one else wants to go for a drink with Rorschach and Rorschach doesn't want to drink at all. 

Dan nods, smiles. “Anytime.” He and Malcolm sink quickly into a conversation that’s almost interesting, sharing gossip about their faculties and laughing just loud enough to convince the rest of the room that they’re having the most fun out of everyone there. About half way through his brandy Dan manages to stop worrying about whether or not it was a mistake to invite so many people into his home who he barely even knows and starts enjoying himself.

Right up until he hears the unmistakable sound of someone knocking at the door down to the cellar. No one else seems to notice, but why would they? It’s a sound Dan has had to become hyper sensitive to in order to maintain the illusion of a normal life.

Somewhat reluctantly excusing himself from his conversation with Malcolm, Dan ducks into the thankfully unoccupied kitchen and closes the door through to the living room behind him. He can feed his guests a line about needing a moment to clear his head. He moves towards the door down to the cave and slides the lock open, having been prescient enough to understand that he might need to keep it shut to prevent Rorschach from gatecrashing.

Rorschach stands at the top of the stairs, mask shifting through patterns that are hard to make out in the muted light coming from the kitchen. There’s still snow lining the shoulders of his trench coat and collecting in the brim of his hat. “Evening, Niteowl.”

“Hello, Rorschach.” Dan replies, a little more strained that he intended. “Listen, buddy. This isn’t a good time.”

Rorschach pauses and cocks his head like he’s listening for something. Dan points to the stacks of bottles littering the kitchen table. “I’m entertaining.”

“Ng.” Rorschach grunts, and Dan swears he can track the way his eyes flick around the tinsel haphazardly thrown across the sides to create the illusion of festive cheer through the mask. “Didn’t think you’d celebrate Christmas.”

“I don’t. It’s a generic holiday thing.” Dan waves his hand about in a vague gesture that he hopes will translate into some kind of firmhearted sentiment. Honestly he’s kind of touched that Rorschach had the decency to check which holiday he celebrates. More than one of his guests have remarked on the Menorah he’s got in the living room like it’s a Christmas decoration with a fire hazard warning.

He should probably invite Rorschach in, that would be the polite thing to do. Maybe everyone else will be so wowed to be in the presence of one of New York’s most famous masks that they won’t notice the smell, or how prickly he is. It would at least be funny to watch them try to be polite about Dan's least pleasant and most interesting friend. 

His only friend, probably. Rorschach has never once tried to interact with Dan outside their vigilantism, Dan doesn't even know what he looks like under the mask, much as he's spent hours imagining various scenarios in which the cloth comes off. Sometimes Rorschach is so hideously ugly it hurts to look at him, sometimes he's the kind of handsome that leaves people weak at the knees. 

Dan is saved the trouble of having to ask the question by Rorschach’s retreating back, traipsing off unfussed into the gloom of the cave. Whatever he came here for, he can handle it himself.

“Happy holidays, buddy!” Dan calls after him.

Rorschach responds with a half formed grunt that echoes off the walls of the stairwell before he’s lost in the dark.

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted as part of a multi chaptered 'advent fics' fic that I'm trying to split up. If you think you've read it before, you probably have


End file.
